I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to housings for a vehicle component and the method of making the same and, in particular, to housings for a vehicle component and the method of making the same wherein oil escape apertures are longitudinally formed therein.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Manufacturers are continually developing more cost effective methods of developing automobile and truck components to reduce the manufacturing costs of vehicles. Metal components may be stamped, flow formed from a blank, and even formed from powder metal depending upon the configuration of the part.
Clutch housings for automatic transmissions and transfer cases have a generally cup-shaped configuration with an axial hub. The outer wall of the housing includes an interior surface having a plurality of longitudinal splines that can be acted upon like the teeth of a gear wheel. Typically, the clutch housing is flow formed from a blank to the desired configuration. Several machining operations are performed to form the desired configuration including punching apertures in the outer wall of the housing to create oil escape holes. This extra step requires the purchase and use of hole-punch machines adding to the cost of manufacturing the clutch housing. In addition, such hole-punching machines provide little flexibility in altering the position of the oil escape holes.
Another method of forming clutch housings having oil escape apertures is disclosed in applicant's commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,728 issued to Townsend et al. on Nov. 23, 1999, hereby incorporated by reference herein. The '728 patent discloses a method for forming a clutch housing wherein the interior surface of the outer wall of the housing is formed with a plurality of longitudinal splines formed at a predetermined depth. A circumferential groove is formed in the exterior surface of the housing outer wall at a depth sufficient to intersect the select splines of the interior surface thereby forming apertures through the wall of the housing. However, while the '728 invention was an improvement over the prior art, the placement of oil escape apertures was restricted to within the circumferential groove only.
There is a constant need in the art to provide a housing and method for making a housing that is more cost efficient than previously known in the art, that eliminates the drilling of individual oil escape apertures though the housing, that reduces the total cycle time required to make the housing, that reduces the price of the housing, and that permits greater flexibility regarding placement of oil escape apertures.